Archive for April, 2008

In my latest wanderings, I stopped at the Southern States exhibit. They have some pretty interesting technology on display. Raj Anand calls it enabling technology. Things like the CMD (current measuring device) – watch it measure current, but not have to be part of the circuit. The Cap Switcher is pretty interesting, but the RL Switcher really got my attention. Ask them about it. Tell Joe that Gene sent me. He can explain anything – heck I understand it when he explains. I wish I had had an instructor like him in my under graduate work.

I just got back from the HVDC panel session. My buddy Wayne is making a great presentation. The room is full. When I stood up to answer my phone, someone jumped into my seat. I can’t blame them. It is a great session. I’m going back as soon as I finish this, but I wanted to get the word out to those of you texting.

I was following my nose taking photos as I went when I ran into Mark Wells at ABB. He set up the exhibit and was really excited about the numbers of engineers on his floor. They were pushing buttons, pulling levers, and just having a ball with real hands on. I’ll have to get back there and play myself - Mark said I could.

Have you ever wanted to see the insides of a transformer? Talk to Vince Paparo at MTC Transformers. His group is going to tear down a trashed core and coil (on the exhibit floor) and rebuild it. They will take a couple of days to let everyone see how it goes. Vince took some time out of his busy day to explain transformers to my student group. Thanks Vince. Everyone go see this exhibit.

My NMSU students found my hiding place. They are a great bunch of young engineers. We visited a lot of booths and they had tons of questions. S&C really wowed them with some new technology to save fuses. They had to run off to the luncheon, but we had fun while they were here.

Trevor Kryt of GeoDigital has some pretty neat things on the floor. Imagine being able to fly a transmission line with 6″ accuracy. He inputs the data to PLSCAD and they can do all kinds of neat things with it. Go see him and play with the toys he has

Hi campers. There are some pretty intersting things around here today. I met Art Becker, fleet specialist for ComEd. He has a full electrical hybred line truck on display. It runs on bio-diesel. The hybred electrical system can run the aerial system for about 40 minutes with the truck silent - no engine running. Art says that is very important in a residential area late at night.

I found it – and so did the other 4,199 folks at the reception. I think everyone went through the U-boat, but the line moved smoothly. I ran into many old friends coming and going as we moved along. John McDonald (past PES President) was ahead of me in line and we had a chance to visit. He confirmed the previous rumor I had reported in the posting about the GE exhibit. There will be fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!!!!!! Pam kept a weathered eye on my progress through the U-boat. When we got to the control room it was big. I thought it was my chance to play with the controls – curses foiled again; they had a lady stationed in the room watching. Between her and Pam I didn’t have a chance.

Pam and I followed the sounds coming from the band to the upper floor at the Museum. The place was jumping and it appeared the conference goers were in the groove. Carl Segneri (Chair of the Windy City Wise Guys – the Organizing Committee) was standing in the center of merriment surrounded by the Wise Guys. They are still as excited as last week, but now they are seeing the results of all the Wise Guy’s efforts and that is relaxing them.

In an earlier posting I said Tommy Mayne was all over the place. Well, I kept running into him tonight at the reception. Tommy checks and double checks all the activities. As he says, he makes sure everyone is having fun. I caught up with him and John Paserba (PES VP of Meetings) as they checked things out. As you can see by the smiles, everything was good. I hope you didn’t miss this happening.